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The Way Out Is In

Benefitting from a Spiritual Practice: In Conversation with Tom Rivett-Carnac (Episode #37)

The Way Out Is In

Plum Village

Health & Fitness, Education, Buddhism, Mental Health, Religion & Spirituality, Self-improvement

0.00 Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2022

⏱️ 102 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to episode 37 of The Way Out Is In: The Zen Art of Living, a podcast series mirroring Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s deep teachings of Buddhist philosophy: a simple yet profound methodology for dealing with our suffering, and for creating more happiness and joy in our lives. This time, the presenters, Zen Buddhist monk Brother Phap Huu and journalist Jo Confino, are joined in conversation by Tom Rivett-Carnac. Together, they discuss the power that deep spiritual grounding has to support change in the world, as well as how to bring presence and insight into our daily lives and the global challenges we face; how to cultivate inner peace; and taking steps to make mindfulness a tool for individual and collective awakening.  Tom Rivett-Carnac is a political strategist, author, and podcaster who has spent more than 20 years working to address the climate and ecological crises. He is also a Founding Partner of Global Optimism, co-presenter of the well-known climate podcast Outrage + Optimism, and co-author of bestselling book The Future We Choose.  Tom also talks about his early-life experience as a Buddhist monk; spiritual development; coming together without egoic attachment to find collective solutions; and integrating practice and activism.   Brother Phap Huu talks about practices for collective awakening and how to not lose track of mindfulness in society’s busyness; training for the hard times; communities as support for the practice; touching enlightenment in daily life; finding peace in silence; being the change we want to see; and how Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings can serve people in times of crises.  Jo delves into the power of presence; letting go of views; and why ‘showing up fully at work’ may not work. The episode ends with a short meditation guided by Brother Phap Huu. Co-produced by the Plum Village App:https://plumvillage.app/ And Global Optimism:https://globaloptimism.com/  With support from the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation:https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/ List of resources Tom Rivett-Carnachttps://www.globaloptimism.com/tom-rivett-carnac The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisishttps://www.globaloptimism.com/the-future-we-choose  S.N. Goenkahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._N._Goenka  Sagaing, Myanmar/Burmahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagaing  Christiana Figuereshttp://christianafigueres.com/#/  The Way Out Is In: ‘The Three Doors of Liberation’ (episode 18)https://plumvillage.org/podcast/the-three-doors-of-liberation-episode-18/  The Way Out Is In: ‘Free from Views in a Polarized World’ (episode 36)https://plumvillage.org/podcast/free-from-views-in-a-polarized-world-episode-36/  The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OECD  Ajahn Chahhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajahn_Chah  Quotes “I’ve done things in the last two days that I haven’t done for 20 years. Like just sit on a log and watch the wind in the poplars for 15 minutes. And how deeply satisfying that present moment can be. I feel very grateful to find that again. And the strange thing, of course, is it was always there. I was allowing myself to develop this sense of melancholy and regret, like it was this difficult thing that I’d achieved and forgotten. And then, coming back here, it actually seemed simple.”  “Spirituality, for us, is the refuge within that needs to always be cultivated.” “When we speak about coming back to oneself in Buddhism, it’s not about taking care of the ego but finding all of the beautiful conditions that we want to cultivate outside, inside of us. Then we will have the ingredients to offer to the world, to the workplace, to our families, to our loved ones.”  “The necessary step that we all need to take is moving mindfulness away from being something that happens in isolation from

Transcript

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0:00.0

Dear friends, welcome back to this latest episode of the podcast series The Way Out

0:06.7

is In.

0:07.7

The Lamaa, la, la,

0:11.9

the la. I'm Joe Conefino working at the intersection of personal transformation and systems evolution.

0:27.0

And I am Brother Fabu, a Zen Buddhist monk in the tradition of Plum Village under the guidance of Zen Master Tichmahand.

0:34.7

And brother we have a very good friend today.

0:37.9

Tom Karnak and Tom is the co-founder of global optimism, the presenter of the very well-known

0:45.7

podcast series Outrage in Optimism, and also the chief political strategist

0:50.8

working with Christina Figueres to bring about the successful conclusion of the Paris Climate Agreement.

0:57.0

The way out is in the skin. Hello dear friends I'm Joe Confino and I am Brother Fab-Who and as I mentioned we have today our friend Tom Connach, Tom welcome.

1:26.2

Thank you. It is absolutely delightful to be here. I'm thrilled to be seeing the inside of the machine.

1:31.6

It's not really a machine, is it?

1:33.4

It's the organic creature that is the way out

1:35.5

is in podcast.

1:36.4

I'm delighted to be with both of you.

1:38.0

So you're very welcome.

1:39.6

So Tom, today we're going to be talking about

1:42.2

the power of spiritual grounding in supporting change in the world.

1:50.0

And so I wanted to kick off by first of all getting a sense of your spiritual tradition because

1:56.4

many people may not know that you were a Buddhist monk early in your life.

2:00.5

So tell us a little bit about that first. Wonderful. Well, I'm very happy to. So first of all,

2:07.2

thanks again for having me. We'll get more into this, but it has been wonderful to be here for the first time ever in Plum Village these

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